Thursday, November 18, 2021
Five Millennia of Environmental Changes in the Coastal Southeast U.S.
Katharine Napora, Ph.D., University of Kentucky Webb Museum of Anthropology
Dr. Napora presents insights into over 5000 years of coastal paleoenvironmental changes based on analyses of ancient buried bald cypress trees recovered from the Georgia Coast. Information from tree rings and chemical analyses, supported by other lines of environmental proxy data, reveals changes in rainfall, sea-level, hurricane frequency, and ecological stability in antiquity. This information about the ancient environment provides a long-term comparative framework for understanding cultural changes in the Southeast U.S. through time.